Stripped Down for Parts: Purgatorio: Battles of the Guelfs and Ghibellines, 1176-1325

  

 

I’ve come late to Purgatorio: Battles of the Guelfs and Ghibellines, 1076-1325 (GMT Games, 2026), the sixth game in the Men of Iron series and designer Ralph Shelton’s second contribution. There is a long story involving missing order components that meant my delivery – along with a handful of other folks’ P500 orders – had been put on ice until the missing bits arrived. Lucky for me, I live in the same city that the distribution centre is based, and so I was able to negotiate getting the rest of the order released while the missing part will be sent along with whichever order they come in with (I’ve got two more orders on the way, so hopefully they’ll show up with one of those).

I also came late to the Men of Iron system. I stumbled across a copy of Arquebus: the Battles for Northern Italy 1495-1544 (GMT Games, 2017) when it had been out of print for a couple of years (a reprint is available for pre-order on GMT's P500 page), and caught up when the Men of Iron Tri-Pack (GMT Games, 2020) was first released.

This will be a brief look at Purgatorio; to be honest, there isn’t that much to the game. That’s not a criticism – the relative simplicity of the Men of Iron system is one of the game’s strengths. I was able to introduce my brother-in-law to the game in a single session of play, and he beat me in our second match.

 

The cover art is striking. Daringly dark, it captures the intimacy of near-fraternal violence of the age. The illustration was commissioned from Kurt Miller, a digital artist who GMT has been leaning on for some of their most striking covers of late, including Pendragon: the Fall of Roman Britain (GMT Games, 2017), A Time for Trumpets (GMT Games, 2020), Norman Conquests: MoIVol. V (GMT Games, 2023), and even rail games like 1846: Race for the Midwest (GMT Games, 2016) and 1848: Australia (GMT Games, 2021). Mr Millers work is dynamic and thematically rich, and – to my mind – really sets the tone of the game.

My only criticism of the box-front would be that the red title gets a little lost in the twilight aspect of the cover illustration, but it something like that would put a punter off buying it, they probably wouldn’t be in the market for this kind of game in the first place. The edge faces all feature a bold white “Purgatorio” against a vermillion background, which is how most people would likely come to the game initially, slipped into a gap in a bookshelf. The title alone might be enough to elicit some initial interest.

Box back.

The box back offers a brief introduction to the Men of Iron system, how it plays and its two-handed solitaire suitability, and a paragraph outlining the historical background against which the battles featured in the game are set, including the origins of the terms Guelf and Ghibelline, referring to supporters of the Pope or the Holy Roman Empire respectively. No map images are featured, but a selection of unit counters and markers  are presented at their regular 5/8” size, along with a list of the game’s contents, the personnel responsible for its coming being brought to market, and some details about the scale of the game (unit sizes, map and time scales). We also learn Purgatorio is recommended for two players, aged 14 and up, that the difficulty rating is suggested to be Four out of Nine, and solitaire suitability Seven out Nine.

The MoI System Rules-set.

The Men of Iron Series Rules have benefitted from years of in-the-field playtesting over several versions of the game. As mentioned, Purgatorio is the sixth game using the system first featured in Men of Iron: Warfare in the Middle Ages (GMT Games, 2005). As mentioned earlier, the system is relatively simple and easy to assimilate, but it’s proven robust enough to handle (with only minor modifications on a case by case basis) to handle tactical warfare from the late 1000s to the late 1400s – four centuries of radical transformation in war-making.

The rules are clearly presented, but being a series rules-set, there are large swarths
of material that are irrelevant to the game to hand (still interesting reading, though).

The rulebook itself is printed on the familiar medium weight matt paper, and is well laid out and easy to read and navigate. Being a series rulebook, some of the material presented is of no consequence to Purgatorio. Of the twenty-five pages of standard rules, the content necessary to this game comes to about sixteen pages (and this count includes the space given to the components and unit descriptions). Another two pages present Optional Rules, and the twenty-eight page book is rounded out with a Cover page, Index and Credits (also a page), and an Extended Sequence of Play on the back cover.

The Battle Book, covering the scenarios and other details for this set.

The Battle Book is the heart of the game. This also comes to twenty-eight pages. These are comprised of a cover page and preface at the beginning, and at the back, a two-page Example of Play and another Extended Sequence of Play more specifically tuned to Purgatorio. The middle twenty-three pages cover the game’s seven scenarios.

Sample scenario (Battle of Cortenuova). Each scenario starts with a historical brief and
an estimated game length, then gets into the meat of the game, with set-up instructions
for each of the two armies, and a map placement map to hurry things along.

After the army set-up instructions come any special rules or scenario instructions (e.g., in
this scenario, the Guelfs may adopt a shield wall defence, the Ghibellines may not),
a note on game balance, and the Flight Levels for the two sides,

Each scenario is presented over three to four pages. Each has a historical introduction, a rough playing time and who sets up first. The two armies are listed by deployment. These are colour-coded by their Leader (another thing I really appreciate about the Men of Iron system), Then Who Goes First and any quirky scenario specific rules or chrome in play for the scenario, and lastly The Flight Levels for each army (in case you’re new to the Men of Iron system, I’ll swing back to the significance of the Flight Levels a bit later – bear with me).

In among all of this is a map, presented on a full age, indicating where each (colour-coded Battle (the term used throughout the age to describe all the troops under a particular leader) begin the action on the field. A lot of the time, this will be a rigid placement (hex numbers are offered in the Army deployment notes), but sometimes there will be the chance for free placement within certain confines, as illustrated on the set-up map.

Everything in the scenarios is really clearly presented and easy to comprehend and apply to the play map. The historical background pieces are very helpful for setting the context of the situation your about to play out. One could argue that successive designers have had two decades to get it right, except the presentation hasn’t changed much at all since the original set was released. All in all, it’s a lovely bit of information transfer design in a hobby not always known for effective user interfacing.

The three map sheets. All 22" by 34" in size, two are back printed to offer the three
full-sized battle maps and four 22" by 17" maps (two to a sheet).

Purgatorio comes with three standard sized map-sheets, two of them double-sided. These present the seven scenario battlefields that we’ve been introduced to in miniature in the Battle Book. Three of the battles – Montaperti, Benevento, and Zappolino – are played out on full sized 22” by 34” maps (unsurprisingly, these tend to play out over three hours and up), while the remaining four scenarios are played on half-sized maps. In these cases, two maps are presented on each side of one of the back-printed maps.

I took over a dozen photos of a couple of the maps and this was the best shot out of
the lot. I'm not going to embarrass myself by posting any of the others, but this, the
map for the Battle of Tagliacozzo, is a good representation of what you can
expect to find with all of the scenarios.

The maps are printed on heavy, low-gloss paper, and lean more into functionality than prettiness, but this is as much a product of the doctrines of warfare as any thoughts of production practicality. Battles throughout the middle-ages tended to be fought on clear, open spaces to facilitate manoeuvre and wide rank formations. My only criticism is that the opportunity was there to put the smaller maps on the obvers of the centre fold on two separate maps instead of printing them all on a single sheet. This would have allowed the map to be presented folded in half for all four smaller scenarios without having to back-fold the sheets centre fold (I complained about this in the Norman Conquests unboxing as well). That said, I’m looking forward to setting up and pushing some counters around on these maps.

Counter sheet 1: the Ghibelline battles and leaders.

Counter sheet 2: the Guelf battles and leaders.

Counter sheet 3:markers various and divers.

 The counters are presented on three card sheets, two full-sized sheets and one quarter sized. These are printed on a good weight of brown-core cardstock that seems to be the standard these days for GMT games, and are die-cut, but can be removed quite cleanly. The counters themselves are 5/8” (which is a nice upgrade from the half-inch counters offered in the Tri-Pack). The units look very nice and should prove to be quite readable on the table.

Player Aid Card (PAC), Back panel (left) and Front panel. The Front panel features the
Weapons Matrix, one of my favourite features of the MoI system.

The inside spread of the PAC offers a set of terrain modifier tables for each of the
included scenarios. You shouldn't need to refer to this too often during play, so you
can treat your 11" by 17" PAC like an 11" by 8,5" card for most of the game.   .

The game includes two bi-fold Player Aid Cards (PACs) which present pretty much everything you will need to refer to during a game, arranged sensibly into combat-related charts and tables on the front and back of the PAC, and a list of short Terrain Effects Charts for each scenario map inside the fold. A key feature of the system is the ability of some units to perform Shock or Charge attacks. The front of the PAC features a Shock/Charge Matrix, an illustrated table that defines which units are capable of the tactic in this particular game, cross-referencing the modifier applicable to each kind of potential target unit. Combat is relatively simple but takes a few steps. A lot can happen in in melee including the loss of a leader. The tables for Defenders attempting a retreat before a Shock attack ae also located here. Combat results tables covering close combat and missile attacks (in the case of Purgatorio, exclusively archers and crossbowmen) are located on the reverse side of the folded card, along with tables covering Charge Reluctance, Counter-Charge vs. Charge, and Counter-Charge vs. Shock/Fire, as well as a handy list of modifiers that may influence a roll for Charge or Shock attacks.

The Flight Track (top) with the starting points for both sides, each battle, prefilled for
your convenience, and the General Track.

Medieval battles were usually attritional. The Men of Iron system reflects this through each side accruing Flight Points for units and leaders lost in battle. As mentioned, each scenario lists a number of Flight Points for each side. These threshold numbers are marked on the Flight Track (see above) for each side and each scenario. During the course of each round the position of each player’s Flight Marker is adjusted to reflect the accrual of Flight Points. At the end of each Free Activation (the first activation for the opposing player when the current player has lost the initiative), both players roll a die and add the result to their current Flight level. If one (or both) player’s resulting total exceeds their Flight threshold, the game is over with a loss to that player. If both players exceed their threshold in the same check, the battle is considered a draw (in this instance, for us at least, a rematch of the same scenario will be scheduled for the next available date).

The card also includes a General Track. this is used for the special Timed Battle rule, that sets a limit on how long the attacking side can galivant around looking for openings or advantages. Each battle has a declared Time Limit, The Defending player has the option to pass on their free activation, and that will shift the Time marker down one space. Then the Time marker reaches Zero, the attacking side immediately loses the game. This is a special rule, not an optional rule, but the way the introduction to the rule is phrased, it seems like it was initially intended as an optional rule. But don’t quote me on this – I’m probably wrong.

Box, dice and baggies (in situ).

It should come as no surprise that Purgatorio comes with ten-sided dice – one purple and one yellow for the two factions) and baggies. Actually, a big roll of baggies (I didn’t count them, but probably enough to separate out all the individual Battles). A cardstock insert is also included to create a trough for the dice and baggies, and to keep everything nice and flat during shipping.

I saw on one of the Facebook groups a fellow mentioning how he inverted the inserts of many of his games to better accommodate counters and other components. This was a lightbulb moment for me, and since then I’ve done this to quite a few games.

"Oh, strange new world; oh, inverted insert."

-----

The animosity between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire that stretched from the end of the twelfth century to the beginning of the fourteenth is a slice of history of which I am particularly ignorant, so I‘m quite looking forward to getting some of these battles to the table. Realistically though, I don’t think this is likely in the short term, at least across the table from another opponent.

I’m on a bit of a project/mission at the moment with the various Army expansions for Commands and Colors: Napoleonics, so I may not get to Purgatorio very soon. I may be able to do an AAR or two now T has a copy of the Men of Iron Tri-Pack that came in the same delivery as this one (although we’ll have to wait for the Patch Kit* before we can play all of the scenarios from that set. This will arrive with Coast Watchers (GMT Games, 2026) which, by all reports should be charging soon and shipping by the end of June.

When I do get to Purgatorio, be assured I will report back on the experience. There will be AARs with the same insightful critique and poor-quality, under-lit phone-camera photos you have come to expect from A Fast Game.

 

* When the files for the Second Printing of the MoI Tri-Pack were sent to the printer, some older files for maps and scenario booklets were forwarded in error. To their credit, GMT notified customers through their following newsletter, but had already put the production of a replacement component package (Patch Kit) in motion.

 

State of Play: Men or Iron Tri-Pack – Agincourt (The War Room Ten Wargame Challenge #2)

 

 

I’m pleased to announce that slow progress is being made on my Ten Game Challenge list. Some of the games on my list I have played before, while some are relatively new – or new to me – titles I’ve been keen to try out. Then there’s the other games, the ones that I’ve had sitting in the closet for years, untouched.

I ordered the Men of Iron Tri-Pack (GMT Games, 2020) on P500 and rejoiced in its arrival. I read through the rules, punched out the Men of Iron and Infidel counters, and made plans to get it to the table sometime soon.

Opening set-up.

Fast-track to 2025. I think Men of Iron was the third game I settled on for my Ten Wargame Challenge list (it’s the first on the list because I set it out in chronological order). I’ve thought about pulling it out before now, but there was always something more pressing to play instead. The value of a commitment like the Ten Game Challenge is it can bring the impetus you need to get over whatever is holding you back from a game. For me, I think what stopped me from getting MoI to the table before now was that I wanted to play it against another human player, but I wasn’t confident in my ability to make the game understandable to another player through play. For the folks who haven’t played the Men of Iron rules, the game doesn’t play out in turns. Rather, each side’s forces are divvied up into formations called “battles,” the moniker used in Europe at the time for a group of fighters under a single command, such as the men-at-arms, yeomen and peasantry fulfilling their oath of fealty to a lord, and the etymological antecedent of the modern term “battalion” (also an early example of the English-speakers’ predilection to make every available noun into a verb, i.e., “to do battle”).

I chose the Agincourt scenario for a couple of reasons. It’s familiar to anybody who has read or (more likely) seen a production of Shakespeare’s Henry V. Never underestimate the value of assumed foreknowledge in convincing a prospective player to try something new. It also has a small footprint, with little room for manoeuvre. The two sides have quite limited resources, and the play time, under normal circumstances, would run to about an hour.

Technically this was our second bite of the Men of Iron cherry. The week before I’d set up the scenario, but rather than play a full game, I thought it would be best to go through the sequence of play, step by step a few times just to get a feel for the flow of the game, for my own benefit as much as for T’s. This experience proved useful. T picked up the concepts of and continuous battle activation far more quickly than I’d expected – I’d struggled with it on my first read-through of the rules – and we got to see how movement, Fire and Shock attacks, and Disordered, Recovering, and Retiring unit rules all worked before having to worry about actual play. Mistakes were made, but as it was a test run, it didn’t matter. We learned by doing.

Ferocious fighting at the pickets.

This week was our first proper game, which we approached a little tardily – T had a work hold-up, and arrived late, truncating our available game time. Still, armed with our experience of the previous week, we approached the game in an appropriately competitive spirit.

As may have been predicted, T chose to play the French. The English begin the game, and I chose to lead with Edward, Duke of York’s battle, engaging his Longbow against Charles, Duc d’Orleans’ unmounted Men-at-Arms. This should have resulted in two units being Disordered (two hits, one miss by York’s longbowmen). After the initial Free Activation you have to roll for further activations. I rolled a 3 for Henry and got another volley of arrows off for another disordered unit, in this case the Dauphin’s personal guard (when a unit with an attached leader becomes disordered, the owning player must roll to see if the leader is lost; in this instance Charles survived). Pressing my luck paid off with a roll of 1 for Thomas de Comoys’ battle (de Comoys’ Activation rating is 3 and the roll had a +1 modifier for the previous successful continuation roll, so I needed a 2 or lower). Baron de Comoys’ longbowmen were less successful, with just one French unit disordered. A second activation for York failed, and so the initiative moved to the French.

T ‘s free activation was naturally spent on his beleaguered Orleans battle, which he brought forward, pairing two of his dismounted Men-at-Arms with each of mine. His Mounted Men-at-Arms he committed to the flanking forests. Observing this, I reminded myself of Napoleon’s axiom, “Never interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake.”

The first round of Shock combat was an indifferent affair. T could not roll a high enough number to dislodge or disorder my battle-hardened Britons and suffered two self-inflicted disorders and a retirement. He succeeded in his first activation roll, bringing forward his archers and crossbowmen under Rambures who, alas, were still out of range and with the poor movement in the mud (two points per hex for clear terrain) unable to clear a path for Jean I, Duc d’Alençon’s battle to reinforce the Dauphin’s depleted forces. A second successful activation roll saw Jean bring his battle up behind the line of French archers. The subsequent roll for Valéran de Raineval, Count Fauquembergue’s battle – the rear-most French battle – was a 9 and convincingly unsuccessful.

"Take it, brave York. Now, soldiers, march away:
And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day!"

Initiative returned to the English, and I chose to activate de Comoys’ battle. Duc d’Alençon fell to de Comoys’ longbowmen and two of his units were disordered, while one of the Dauphin’s units was eliminated in melee. A successful roll activated Henry’s battle. Henry managed to eliminate a second of the Dauphin’s Men-at-Arms units, fatally wounding Charles in the process. The English were finally beginning to see some Flight Points accruing against the French. In Men of Iron, each side has a quotient of Flight Points, which accrue with each unit or leader eliminated. At each change of initiative (this is usually skippable for the first couple in the game) each side rolls a d10, and if the combined result of the die roll and the current number of accrued Flight Points exceeds the Flight Point quotient for that side, they immediately loose the game (their men collectively losing the will to press the fight). If both aides fail their check, the game is declared a draw.

York’s activation was successful, but his bowmen’s fire was not, amounting to nought. Still, in melee managed to disorder his antagonists. The course of battle had disordered Henry’s and de Comoys’ attached units, but the York’s men stood firm.

In the interests of keeping the game moving, I tried to activate de Comoys’ battle and failed, passing the initiative over to the French once more. Neither side failed their Flight check, so the game continued. In retrospect, this is the point at which the English lost the battle.

Final game-state. The English may have been able to come back from this,
but not with my die-rolls.

To my surprise, T used his free activation to manoeuvre his bow battle to bring some into range, while shifting others to allow egress of the Duc d’Alençon’s battle to support the Dauphin’s brittle line. It was the archers, though, that proved to be the fulcrum on which the battle pivoted. Two volleys were loosed against Henry’s men, the second disordering them and killing the King of England and Wales. Two more successful activations for the French saw some further melees, but ultimately nothing proved decisive, with no further eliminations of leaders or troops.

With Henry dead and his host in disorder, and the hour getting closer to around 11:00pm, we decided to call the game as a minor French victory. We reasoned that, with the loss of their king, the English army could feasibly make a fighting withdrawal in good order and let the disordered and disheartened French morn the loss of their Dauphin.

Casualties of war. For all the fighting, only two units, a duke a prince and a king lost.

Stripped Down for Parts: Norman Conquests: Men of Iron Volume V

   

 

Norman Conquests: Conflicts of the Normans and their Successors,1053-1265 is the fifth volume in the Men of Iron series (which the less charitable call GBoH-lite). I’m a completist at heart, so of course, having the Men of Iron Tri-Pack (GMT Games, 2020) and the fourth volume, Arquebus: Men of Iron Volume IV – The Battles for Northern Italy1495-1544 (GMT Games, 2017 – currently on P500 for a reprint, but you can find my unboxing here)

GMT has recently made a significant change to the presentation of their more traditional style wargames, eschewing the martial minimalist style of Rodger B. McGowan for more elaborate commissioned paintings (usually) fitting well with the game’s subject. We’ve seen this in the last couple of Mark Simonitch’s WWII operational games, such as Salerno ’43 (GMT Games, 2022), North Africa ’41 (GMT Games, 2023), and the second edition of France ’40 (GMT Games, 2024). The particularly evocative cover illustration for Norman Conquests is by digital artist Kurt Miller, originally named The Duke of Normandy. Miller has previously provided cover illustrations for Ancient Civilizations of theInner Sea (GMT Games, 2019), and A Time for Trumpets (GMT Games, 2020). Miller does some truly amazing work, running the gamut from military art, through dinosaurs, historical scenes, to some whacky Star Wars crossover stuff that I’m sure has an audience. You can check out his work via this link. I particularly like his technical illustrations of WWII fighter planes… but we’re here to talk about Norman Conquests, so let’s get back to it.

Back of the box.

The box-back offers a glimpse into what lays in store for the purchaser, with a sample of the counters (shown to actual size), brief series and historical introductions, and a list of the battles included in the game. Norman Conquests is recommended for ages 14 and up and is strictly classed as a two-player game (I’ll come back to this later). The unit size is roughly 250 men to a counter, the hexes are roughly 100 yards across (this is amended to 110 yards, or about 100m, in the rulebook), and, like all Men of Iron, no regular game turns. The complexity is rated as 4 out of 9, which I’d agree with, and solitaire suitability is ranked at 7 out of 9 (personally I’d put it at an 8, but the game is probably best played by two players).

While the battles represented in Norman Conquests all took place inside of a 210-year period, this is possibly the most geographically far-reaching of the sets, cast from the green and pleasant fields of England to Apulia, Italy. There are seven represented in all, and I think it makes for a good survey of Norman – shall we say – participation in various national political discourses of the time The box back details each battle by name, date and location (in chronological order), seven battles in all.

The MoI Series Rulebook (left) and Norman Conquests Battle Book.

As with previous volumes in the Men of Iron series, Norman Conquests comes with two separate booklets, a Men of Iron rulebook and a Battle Book exclusive to this game, covering all the scenarios, and offering a short Example of Play at the end.. While the Series rules are standard across the games, the rulebook gets some attention with each new volume, adding any new unit types and rules particular to the situations covered in the new game.

Rulebook - sample spread.

The rulebook comes in at 28 pages, but the essential rules make up 20 of those. The rulebook covers both the three games that make up the Tri-Pack and Norman Conquests, so there are a number of rules exceptions of clarifications that don't necessarily apply to Norman Conquests, so you could probably ignore about another two pages of text in that. The next three pages are allocated to Special Rules, but only about a column of these are pertinent to the game at hand. There is also a useful Index, a list of changes to the other three games from the Tri-Pack, and on the back cover, e really useful Extended Sequence of Play that I'd recommend photocopying and laminating a couple of copies, so you're not wearing out the rulebook.

The rules for Men of Iron have benefitted from close attention and lots of feedback over the years. The current rules are very easy to digest (that is to say, I don’t think I’ve hit any snags with them), and let you get to the counter-pushing stage quickly. Now would be a good point to mention that the whole Men of Iron series is eminently playable solo, with no hidden movement, clear goals for each side, but with enough tactical flexibility to prevent railroading, and a brilliant continuation/initiative-seizure mechanic (instead of distinct game turns) that keeps an element of surprise in the mix.

Battle Book - sample spread.

One of the things I love about the Men of Iron games is the set-up instructions (to be fair, this is probably a carryover from the series, an obvious influence on Men of Iron). With both text instructions and a colour-coded map, setting up a game is as easy as they can make it without someone coming to your door and setting it up for you. Some battles feature well-defined placement of troops, while others have areas marked out in which to set up a given battle.*

Each scenario gets its own historical background notes, clear set-up map as well as written instructions (for those who prefer to do things the hard way), and some even feature scenario variation notes for those who think every game should be fair and balanced going into it.

PAC - front and back.

The Player Aid Cards are a bi-fold design with all the charts and tables you should need for the game handily located on the front and back of the closed card. The front of the card features the Battle Matrix for Norman Conquests, which essentially breaks down the effectiveness of all the weapons systems used in the game against all the other weapons systems (in terms of DRMs for Shock and Charge attacks). The back panel offers the Combat Results Tables for various means of attack, as well as the tables for defensive actions against attacks like a mounted charge or a shock push by foot soldiers. 

PAC - inside the fold (Terrain Effects Charts).

Inside the PAC are the Terrain Charts specific to each scenario map. These can vary in number; Tinchebrai has a map devoid of features, while Hastings and Evesham each have five different terrain types described, along with their relative movement costs. There are also considerations (one extra movement allowance cost) relating to units exiting or withdrawing from a hex with adjacency to an enemy unit of units. This information is replicated un the maps as well, so if you like – and have the spare table real estate – you can have your PAC splayed out next to you with both more useful sides on full display. I’m a flipper, so I tend to use the PAC folded, which can double as a fan when things get tense at the table.

Flight Point Track and General Track (and the quarter-sized counter sheet).

The game includes an 8 ½” by 11” Flight Point Track card. This is where you’ll track the battle’s progress, i.e. how many Flight Points you and the other guy have each accrued in the game. Flight Points are the currency of the game. When you take losses – both troops and leaders – you’ll register these on the Flight Point Track. These points can accrue quickly; the loss of a regular fighting unit – spear- and pikemen, archers, axemen, etc. – will put two points to your tally, while a Men-at-Arms unit or commander will increase the level by three, and you really don’t want to lose your king (five Flight Points right there). Play tends to be asymmetric, so one side will have a higher threshold for their flight points, but once one side hits their threshold, the other team claims victory. And thanks for coming.

The card also features a General Track. After going through the rules of the Men of Iron Tri-Pack (GMT Games, 2020), my first Men of Iron game(s), I couldn’t find a single reference to this General Track. I thought I was missing something obvious, but I couldn’t find the answer. So, I went to the oracle (Boardgamegeek.com), thinking that If I’d had a problem with this, somebody else probably had as well. Sure enough, somebody had asked the question, and somebody had provided the answer. The General Track is where you can keep track of the phasing side’s successive activations, which you need to track for dice-roll modifiers when your opponent tries to seize the initiative.

Two full counter sheets. Not a lot of counters for seven battles. Just sayin'.

The counters for Norman Conquest represent a break from tradition for the series. While the earlier games featured half-inch counters, these are a forgiving 9/16” and much easier to identify and interpret on the board (for these old eyes at least). The counters also look nice.  I’ve always liked the Men of Iron counter layout; the use of a coloured banner stripe to mark out the various battles’ allegiances is extremely helpful, and the on-board assisting markers (for game states like Charge, Shock, and Out of Command) are clear and unambiguous.

There are only two full sheets of counters for the game, along with a generously margined quarter-sheet, mostly markers and a few units. Compared to some in the series, none of the battles represented in Norman Conquests are particularly large; the biggest scenarios see only around thirty unit-counters to a side.

Civitate and Fuldord battle maps.

Stamford Bridge and Tinchebrai battle maps. The centre fold allows you to have
 just a single half-map exposed during play (not always a option in other games).

The game comes with three map sheets, and two of these are back-printed to make up the seven battles. The largest battle area maps – Hastings, Lewes, and Evesham – cover most of a single side of a standard 22” by 34’ paper map, while the four small battles are printed two to a side on the obverse faces of the double-sided maps. This means to play the smaller map games, there is not need to fold out the entire map; everything for these scenarios fits on one half of the page, on the outside face of the bi-folded mapsheet.

Hastings Battle map.

Lewes battle map.

If the maps seem a little spare, somewhat light on terrain features, that would be because battles were usually fought in an open area where whoever showed up first might gain some topographical advantage. Like Harold choosing the high ground of hill to make his stand (spoiler alert: it didn’t help, historically).

Evesham battle map.

As with most GMT games, Norman Conquests comes with a roll of zip-loc baggies in which to store your counters, enough to keep all the battles in their own bags and to divvy up the markers into sensible groupings. Also included area pair of ten-sided dice – one white and one red, and a filler insert to keep everything from moving around and getting corner-bruised during shipping.

Inside the box.

The box itself is the sturdy two-inch deep, heavy grey cardstock item that seems to be standard for all GMT games these days. I was going to say they could have got away with a 1½” box, but you always need to add a half to accommodate the dice, so two inches it is.

And that covers all the parts of Norman Conquests. I’m very keen to get this to the table. I know I say that a lot and I’m thin on evidence of following through, but in this case, I can see a way forward. Several of the scenarios should be small enough in terms of the size and number of the battles on each side to be able to set up and play on a weeknight. I’ve been emboldened to try this after watching Matt White’s AAR of a solo game of Civitate on his YouTube channel, Matt White Wargames. Matt’s a designer and wargame artist as well as a player/reviewer, so if you aren’t already, you should subscribe to his channel.

Lastly, I bought this in the recent GMT Fall Sale, along with three other games. I apologise to my regulars for being so tardy bringing these to be blog. I’m hoping to work through the other games, soon. If all goes to plan, an unboxing of Banish All Their Fears (GMT Games, 2024) should be next, hopefully inside of a fortnight. In the meantime, go play something.

 

* Battle in this sense is used to indicate all the forces under the command of and loyal to an individual leader. It’s an unusual word in that from its earliest recorded usage, it had multiple meanings, operating as both a noun and a verb, with the meaning implied by context in which it was used. From Middle-English, it could be used to describe a fortified tower, a contingent of troops under a leader (such as Offa’s battle), military exercises (training at arms), a contest of arms (the action of martial pursuit, at either the personal level, like a duel or single combat, or troop level, the activity of doing battle), or even to describe a fight between animals (such as cock- or dog-fighting).

Stripped Down for Parts: Arquebus: Men of Iron Volume IV (Revised)

 

 

A couple of months ago (to the delight of many), the fourth volume of the Men of Iron series, Arquebus: The Battles for Northern Italy, 1495-1544 (GMT Games, 2017), was put up for a proposed reprint on GMT Games’ P500 list. For those new to this, new games and some reprint go on a pre-order list, where Regular Joes can commit to buying a copy or two of the proposed game at a reduced price (around 30% off, so nothing to sneeze at), when the game is released. Once the pre-orders reach the 500 mark, the game will be moved to the Made the Cut, and it will be given a place in the production queue. After a time – subject to a number of variables but usually somewhere between eighteen months and several years – the product is printed and shipped to GMT’s warehouse (and only then are the Regular Joes asked to part with their hard-earned cash).

Arquebus has been out of print for a number of years, before the release of the Men of Iron Tri-Pack (2020), a re-release of the first three games in the series. With the announcement of a fifth volume in the series, Norman Conquests: Conflicts of the Normans and their successors in the 9th-11th centuries (GMT Games, 2023), it had to only be a matter of time before Arquebus got its own reprint.

A year-and-a-half ago I managed to pick up the last copy of Arquebus hiding on a back shelf of my FLGS (next state over, along with 1960: Making of the President (GMT Games, 2007) and combined free shipping – how could I say no?). I already had the MoI Tri-Pack and had pre-ordered Norman Conquests, the fifth volume in the series as well (unfortunately the budget wouldn’t stretch to cover it when it arrived from the printer, so I had to cancel my preorder; maybe one for the Summer Sale). 

When it arrived, I ripped off the shrink, admired the components, read throguh the rules and glanced at the scenarios, then placed it on the shelf it shares with other games I haven't gto to the table yet. The Arquebus product page tells us that the new printing will be straight reprint; no re-jigging except for fixing any known errata. So, as a community service, I’d like to present my unboxing of Arquebus: Men of Iron, Volume IV, so you can get an idea of what you can look forward to, when the Second Printing is, well, in print.

The box art is in keeping with style of the earlier games in the series, with a cover illustration capturing a snapshot of martial action at the foot of a bridge, a mass of straining bodies of men and horses, sweeping swords, raised maces, broken lances and everywhere the dying and the dead. It’s an intimate scene of desperate, harrowing massed combat. This detail has been extracted from a larger painting by nineteenth-century French artist and illustrator, Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux, entitled Chevalier de Bayard at the bridge of Garigliano. Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard, was a Man at Arms in the service of Charles IIV (by whom he was knighted for his exploits at the Battle of Fornovo) Louis XII, and Francis I, until his death in 1524.

The box-back informs us that Arquebus is a game that can be played in one to five hours by one to two players, that it's roughly four out of nine on the complexity scale and scores seven out of nine for solitaire-play suitability (I'm inclined to agree on both counts; the MoI game-system introduces some novel mechanics, but it's by no means difficult to grasp, and while there are no inherent solitaire rules, the system is well suited to two-handed solo play). Here we also learn that the units represent roughly 500-1,000 soldiers or 150-200 Men at Arms, and four to six field pieces. The map scale is 125 metres (about 135 yards) to a hex. 

The previous entries into the series consider battles that are somewhat geographically localised and represent a period of evolution in warfighting, such as the preeminence of cavalry and the armoured knight in the early Crusades (Infidel) or the reemergence of infantry and the growing understanding of the potential of combined arms tactics in the early fourteenth century (Men of Iron). Arquebus focuses on the Italian Wars of the Late fifteenth to early sixteenth centuries. Firearms began to appear to the field of battle, supporting bristling blocks of Swiss Pike alongside more traditional crossbowmen, but by the middle of the 1500s, guns had been steadily replacing the bow in mass combat. At the same time, the Swiss pike formations had been overhauled by the German Landsknects as the mercenary band of choice. Taken together, the battles represented offer an interesting historical snapshot of the evolving battlefield.

Arquebus Rule Book and Battle Book (scenarios and Example of Play).

Any game in the Men of Iron series is quite playable. The rulebook runs to just twenty pages; eighteen actually, when you discount the cover page (which incorporates the Table of Contents), and the back cover, which includes a pretty thorough index (by section rather than page number), the production credits, and a short bibliography for folks like me who like to read more about the history they’re playing (this could probably be said of most historical wargamers).

The rulebook and Battle book are both printed on glossy, reasonably heavy-weight paper stock (though this may change with the new printing, given the reprint games in the Tri-Pack have all shifted to matt paper of slightly lighter gauge, which I actually prefer for readability). Both are set out in the two-column format in common with most GMT publications. The layout is sensible, the writing clear, and the examples and illustrations elucidating. Scattered throughout the rules are little box-text design and play notes that further clarify how something works or why it works that way in the first place.

The Rules have probably benefited from being in their fourth release. While these are series rules, each iteration is tailored to the historical situation being portrayed in that game-set. In Arquebus, only the units appearing across the scenarios are included, and these are used in the illustrated examples of play throughout the rulebook.

Rule Book (sample page).

Anyone who has played another Men of Iron game will be able to pick up a copy of Arquebus and run with it. Seventeen and a half pages of the rules will be familiar to the practiced player; a mere column is given over to the three Special Rules unique to the situation and era, including Gun Wagons (fortified carriages, like placeable pillboxes) and the Swiss mercenaries’ reluctance to fight if they haven’t been paid.

I also wanted to point out, the rules are permeated with the wit and irreverence that designer Richard Berg brought to all of his games. Everyone who knew or had dealings with Mr Berg has a story or several about the man who arguably has had a broader and more far-reaching impact on wargaming than anyone. The rest of us feel like we’ve got to know him a little through the glimpses of his personality and humour expressed in his rules.

Battle Book (sample page: Ravenna scenario).

The Battle Book will also be familiar to anyone with experience with the Men of Iron series. This runs to forty pages, with the first two pages given over the cover/Table of Contents, and a prefacing historical note and a couple of paragraphs onset-up and selecting units. Then it’s into the battles. Each scenario gets a column or two of historical context, clear instructions on the initial set-up of the counters (with a reproduction of the game-map indicating the positions or placement area of the various “battles”*). The Battle book also offers a detailed, five-page example of play, followed by one-page example of combat. The back cover has a very helpful Extended Sequence of Play. I’d recommend photocopying this and laminating a couple of copies to have to hand. I’d wager you’ll find the answer to around 80% of at-table queries on this page alone.

A note on game balance

Before we go any further into Arquebus, please note that the scenarios on offer here will play out to their historical conclusions a lot of the time. Historically, battles were rarely even matches, and any tactician worth his salt would avoid a fight if he could unless he could press some advantage. Richard Berg created scenarios that reflected the historical reality of the situation (based on the best information available to him). In all of the scenarios in Arquebus except Pavia, Mr Berg spent time and column inches addressing the Game Balance in terms of the historical situation portrayed, and in Cerignola, Agnadello, and Marignano he presented some options for addressing the lack of balance in those battles. 

Three counter sheets

Arquebus boasts three counter sheets, covering the French, Spanish, and Venetian forces and the Swiss mercenaries. Like other Men of Iron titles, the counters and markers are a uniform ½”. As someone who needs to reach for his reading-glasses more often than I like to admit, I’m less of a fan of small counters in games, but with the sheer numbers of pieces on the board in some scenarios (and the sheer number of scenarios in the box) makes ½” counters a sensible choice, though I’m glad I finally invested in some 3mm Perspex sheets and a pair of tweezers.

Sample counters (underlit; the photo doesn't do justice to the colours of the counters).

Even for their diminutive size, the unit and leader pieces are still clearly readable on the board (let me just grab my reading glasses), and all the pertinent information is available in each. The thing that suffers most from the size of the counters is the artwork; each unit is illustrated with an individual figure – standing or mounted, as per its type and disposition – and the little illustrations are quite remarkable in their detail, some of which is lost or obscured at that scale. For Twentieth-century conflicts I prefer NATO symbology, but the illustrated counters on Ancient and Medieval/Early Modern games add to the verisimilitude of the play experience, in ways I don’t think I’ve credited enough in the past.

Player Aid Cards, front and back (or, outside and inside).

The game comes with two duplicate Player Aid Cards. These are three-panel (tri-fold) PACs covering the necessary charts for resolving ranged and close combat and shock effects on units, including Swiss Shock Reluctance (as mentioned in the special rules). The nifty thing about the tri-panel PAC is that the centre panel is just a little wider than the two outer panels, so you can have it folded down to a roughly 11” by 8 ½” package with the melee (charge and shock) charts on one side and either the Weapons System Matrix or the Range Combat charts showing on the other. It took le a little while to cotton on to this, but I’ve come around to it.

The reverse (interior) of the PAC presents a suit of Terrain Effects Charts, six in all (for the battles of Agnadello, Ravenna, Marignano, Bicocca, Pavia and Ceresole; the Cerignola and Fornovo TECs are printed right on the map – efficient use of space all round).

Track card.

Arquebus also features an 11” by 8 ½” combined Flight Point Track and General Track. For the uninitiated, the Flight Point track is where each side tracks their accumulated Flight Points. This number grows with each unit or leader lost in battle. At the end of every free activation, each player rolls a die and adds the result to their current Flight Point quotient. If the total exceeds the Flight point threshold for that side and scenario (these thresholds are all helpfully pre-printed on the track, though I personally found the small, brown font on the beige background a little difficult to read), that player loses the game.

Battle of Pavia map (the largest scenario in the pack).

Anyone familiar with the Men of Iron series will feel right at home with these maps. The game comes with two double-sided map-sheets. The maps are relatively simple and clean looking. the battle-spaces are relatively free of terrain obstacles or cover (compared to, say, a WWII western front  game set at a company or battalion scale), but this reflects the orthodoxy and practical considerations of mass-warfare at the time. Well into the late Middle Ages, the choice locations for battle would offer broad, clear spaces uninterrupted by obstacles to allow flexibility of manoeuvre.

Battle maps for the battles of Agnadello (left) and Fornovo.

Only one of the battles of the battles – Pavia is played out on a full map. Three – Agnadello, Ceresole, and Marignano – are given full 17” by 22” half-maps; Ravenna and Fornovo play out on maps 22x25 hexes (a slightly reduced half-sheet), while Bicocca and Cerignola are won or lost on maps of 25x14 and 14x12 hexes respectively. (In his scenario notes, Mr Berg mentions that Cerignola is a perfect scenario with which to learn the MoI system, and good for solitaire play,)

Battle maps for the battles of Ceresol (left), Bicocca upper right), and Cerignola.

The way the maps are presented, it’s possible to leave the map-sheet closed at the centre fold for most of the smaller battles without having to back-fold the crease, saving room at the table (playing Ravenna or Marignano, you can still have half of the unused map tucked in under itself).

Good, readable dice and a roll of baggies (#simple_pleasures).

I was a little surprised that Arquebus didn’t come with a travel riser (the cardboard insert many games come with to prevent the materials inside the box for shifting and getting corner bruising during transit. I’ve noticed this is more common in games with mounted boards or lots of material generally (like the glut of maps, counter sheets, PACs and booklets in the MoI Tri-Pack box) It may be that this is less of an issue with paper map-games. My copy of Arquebus would have been five or six years old before I received it, and there’s no telling what kind of handling it may have received getting from Hanford, California to Melbourne, Victoria, but it was a little shy of pristine when I received it. I don’t think it’s an absolute necessity, but I wouldn’t like to speculate whether you’ll see an insert in the second printing copy or not.

What you will see is a couple of quite nice ten-sided dice and a little roll of baggies, enough to accommodate all the counters and markers from the game in some semblance of order. If you are counter-tray inclined, fear not: the two-inch box will comfortably hold two trays (probably three at a stretch if you’re one of these ungrateful heretics that keep all their dice separate from their original games), and still fit the booklets, maps and PACs.

So that's what you can expect to find in the Men of Iron, Volume IV: Arquebus reprint. I really hope his has piqued your interest. It warrants noting that the Men of Iron Tri-Pack us also being offered on GMT's P500 page for a second printing. This set contains all three earlier volumes of the Men of Iron series - Men of Iron (GMT Games, 2005), Infidel (GMT, 2011), and Blood & Roses (GMT, 2014), as well as the stand-alone Agincourt scenario that originally appeared in C3i magazine. At the pre-order price of US$59.00, the Tri-Pack is a real bargain. It's currently about half-way to making the cut, and could benefit some love.

I'll get to reviewing Arquebus closer to printing (as well as the MoI Tri-Pack). In the meantime, click on the title links; these will take you to each game's BGG page, where you'll be able to see some better component shots than I can currently offer. As always, if you've read this far, thanks for sticking around, and please feel free to comment with suggestions, accusations, or hints on lighting. 

* Battle in this sense is used to indicate all the forces under the command of and loyal to an individual leader. It’s an unusual word in that from its earliest recorded usage, it had multiple meanings, operating as both a noun and a verb, with the meaning implied by context in which it was used. From Middle-English, it could be used to describe a fortified tower, a contingent of troops under a leader (such as Offa’s battle), military exercises (training at arms), a contest of arms (the action of martial pursuit, at either the personal level, like a duel or single combat, or troop level, the activity of doing battle), or even to describe a fight between animals (such as cock- or dog-fighting).

Editorial note: this post was edited on 20 October 2024 to correct the attribution of the box cover illustration.